St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-07-25
Commissioner Carroll D. Wright Gives
Mass of Figures Upon the Work
of Convicts.
He Finds They Are Working Under the
Contract, Piece-Priee, Public-AG-
count and Lease Systems,
And Concludes That There is Justice,
Humanity and Morality in the Pub
lic-AGGount System.
Gen. William Mckee Dunn Dead---The
Mineral Products of the Country
on the Increase.

Special 10 the Globe.
WASHINGTON, July 24.-The report of
the commissioner of labor, Carroll ID.
Wright, on convict labor in the United
States has just been made public. 1t
gives mass of figures from each state
and territory. There are four different
systems, the report says, in vogue
throughout the country-the contract
system, the piece-price system, the pub
lic-account system and the lease system.
The first system is the most prevalent.
Under it more cOnvictS are employed
and more goods manufactured than any
other. The prison officers gen.
orally advertise for bids for
the employment of convicts, the
highest responsible bidder securing the
contract. The piece-price system is a
modification of the contract system, the
contractor having nothing to do with
the convicts. The contractor furnishes
the prison officers with material ready
for manufacturing, and the officers re-
turn the completed work at an agreed
price for each piece. The public-ac-
count system consists in working the,
conyictS by the prison officials for the
benefit of the state. The lease system
is that by which the cOnvictS are let to
contractors for specified gross sum.
THE RETURNS
show that there were employed at pro-
ductive labor during the time covered
by the investigation 42, 799 cOnvictS, di-
vided as follows: Contract system, 15,-
425; piece-price system, 1858: public
account system, Is, ,SSS; and lease sys-
TEN, S,793. Concerning competition with
free labor report says: 1T is perfectly
evident from information drawn from
the tables that the comparison arising
from the employment of cOnvicts, so far
as the whole country is concerned,
would not of itself constitute question
worthy of serious discussion. The pro-
duct of the prisoners is but 54-100 of 1
per cent. of the total mechanical pro-
ducts of the country. The whole prison
population of those institutions in
which productive labor is carried on is
but one in thousand of the population
of the country, and those engaged in
convict labor but one in 800 of those en-
gagged in free mechanical labor. Lest
one might naturally suppose that there
was no such thing as
CONVICT COMPETITION
with free labor. the above figures are
given. These facts, however, do not
lHNdllUdIc tUc Cldllll tildG IOCdiIy ttuU Ill
certain industries the competition may
be serious and of such proportion as to
claim the most earnest attention of leg
islatures." While the commissioner is
particularly cautious about expressing
adecided opinion on any point, it is sur
missed that he is in favor of hard labor
under the public-accOunt system, as it
keeps prisoners employed and does not
come so much as the others in competi-
tion with free labor. "This plan" says
the report, "has justice in it, affecting
all people alike. 1t has humanity
in it, because it allows every
effort for reformation without any en-
largement or interference through
forms of labor. 1t has morality in it,
because it removes effectually the whole
question of the cOnvict-labor agitation
not only from the minds of the working
men and manufacturers, but from the
list of questions agitating the public"
A valuable part of Mr.. Wright's report
is an appendix, giving an abstract of
convict labor laws now in force i'll the
different states and territories.